One of the jurors is a college student who starts classes this afternoon, so Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell is allowing the jury to work around her schedule. They also will deliberate for only two hours Wednesday if no verdict has been reached by then.

On Headline News yesterday, attorney Lisa Bloom, Advocate editor Neal Broverman, and Judy Shepard joined Chris Jacobs to talk about the "gay panic" defense, the atmosphere in the courtroom, and anti-LGBT hate crimes.

The jury got the case on Friday, and more deliberations are expected today, the AP notes:

"Jurors began their discussions on Friday to determine whether 17-year-old Brandon McInerney is guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of 15-year-old Larry King at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard. The panel is expected to deliberate for only a couple of hours because a juror has a prior commitment...McInerney has pleaded not guilty to one count each of murder and a hate crime. If convicted, he faces more than 50 years in prison. Jurors also can consider a conviction of voluntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum 21-year term."

Closing arguments should end today in the trial of Brandon McInerney, charged with killing his gay classmate Lawrence King in 2008. Prosecutors argued for a murder conviction, and not the lesser manslaughter conviction the judge allowed earlier this week. Defense attorneys brought a "gay panic" defense, arguing that McInerney snapped after he was sexually harassed by King.

Prosecutor Maeve Fox made her closing arguments in the murder trial of Brandon McInerney yesterday, the AP reports:

Using McInerney's own words via an interview with a psychologist, Fox said during closing arguments that the teen became enraged after Larry passed him in the hallway in February 2008 and made what he believed was the ultimate insult.

McInerney, then 14, made a conscious decision to kill King the next day, telling a friend he planned to shoot his classmate, she said. He hid a gun in his backpack and brought it to E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, where he shot King twice in the back of the head, a "cold-blooded execution," the prosecutor said.

"He intentionally got that gun; he told people what he was going to do," Fox said. "He shot and killed an innocent person."

In his closing argument Thursday, lawyer Scott Wippert said his client Brandon McInerney didn't have problems with Larry King until King started wearing makeup, high heels and began sexually harassing him in the weeks leading up to the shooting. Wippert also blamed school administrators for not addressing the simmering feud between the boys.

"We're not saying Larry King is a terror, a bad kid, but the adults should have stopped this behavior," Wippert said...

...Defense attorneys do not deny McInerney killed King, but they contend their client came from a violent upbringing. They say he snapped when he heard moments before the shooting that King wanted to change his first name to Latisha.

Jurors will be able to consider a voluntary manslaughter charge in the trial of Brandon McInerney, who shot his gay classmate Lawrence King in the head in an Oxnard, California courtroom in February 2008, the Ventura County Star reports:

"I think it is too risky and we have gone on too long and there is too much invested in this to take a risk with an appellate judge who might disagree," Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell said.

Conviction on a first-degree murder charge would bring a mandatory 50-year sentence, but a manslaughter sentence ranges from four to 11 years, along with a 10-year enhancement for using a gun. McInerney will have to be found not guilty of first- and second-degree murder by all 12 jurors for them to consider the manslaughter charge.

The paper adds: "Decisions must be unanimous or the jury is hung. A first-degree murder is one of premeditation; manslaughter is a homicide committed in the heat of passion. McInerney also faces a hate crime charge that carries a one- to three-year sentence."

Defense lawyers rested their case Monday without calling to the witness stand the youth who killed fellow eighth-grader Larry King before two dozen horrified classmates and a teacher at E.O. Green Junior High in Oxnard. Defense attorney Scott Wippert told the court that McInerney, now 17, made the choice not to testify...

...The defense contends that McInerney entered into a “dissociative state” and was driven to a sudden irrational act by a violent upbringing and by what he felt as sexual harassment by King. Defense lawyers are asking that the jury be allowed to consider a charge of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder.

The prosecution is calling one more rebuttal witness, a psychologist who is expected to refute testimony by a psychologist the defense put on the stand. This means closing arguments in the trial could be heard in the next few days, and the jury would start deliberating shortly thereafter.

A former police officer testifed on behalf of Brandon McInerney's defense yesterday to argue that the 17-year old was not motivated by hate or white supremacism when he shot and killed gay classmate Lawrence King in February of 2008.

Randal Hecht, an investigator called by the defense, testified Wednesday that most white supremacists don’t have black or Latino friends, as McInerney, now 17, did.

Prosecutors contend that a sympathy for white supremacists fueled McInerney. But in his testimony, Hecht -- a former Riverside police officer who has investigated crimes involving neo-Nazis — suggested the 2008 shooting of King in a computer lab at E.O. Green Junior High was no hate crime.

Hecht, who delivered mostly yes-no answers in more than six hours on the witness stand, agreed with defense attorney Scott Wippert when he contended that personal conflict—not ideology—was at the heart of the slaying.

A girl in the computer lab testified earlier in the six-week trial that she was openly gay. Numerous other students in the room were black or Latino, including some who said they were friends with McInerney.

“If Brandon McInerney solely shot Larry King because of bias aagainst gays or those he perceived as gay, wouldn’t you expect him to turn the gun on Maria and shoot her?” Wippert asked.

Meanwhile, a defense psychologist claimed McInerney was in a "dissociative state" when he pulled the trigger, an act he admits. That argument seems dubious, because McInerney reportedly told a prison counselor that he had planned the fatal attack.

The trial, which is not getting the press attention it deserves, will wrap up next week.